


Safe Harbor

by disturbtheuniverse



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:53:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22762777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disturbtheuniverse/pseuds/disturbtheuniverse
Summary: the prompt: "Lucas finds out accidentally about Maya's troubled home life and lets her stay over his house sometimes because she feels like she bothers Riley too much already, romance will ensue" via an ask on my writing blog.
Relationships: Lucas Friar/Maya Hart
Comments: 1
Kudos: 162





	Safe Harbor

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this ages ago but it didn't show up in the tumblr tags SO i'm gonna just slap it here ty. frankly, i...do not remember what season this is set during sorry lol. probably s2!

i.

It’s not so bad. That’s what she thinks for years, for so long that she almost really believes it. It’s not so bad not having a dad and it’s not so bad having a mother who’s always working. Her mother loves her – that’s lucky, right? Some kids have no parents, or parents who don’t love them. Maya has love. She can be happy with that.

But then she sees how much Riley has. Not just love but support, someone there to help her with homework and say goodnight every evening and make breakfast for her every morning. Not just someone, someone _s_. The last thing Maya wants to do is resent her mother. Her mom is the reason she has a bedroom to sleep in, even if it’s cold and too-bright and the neighborhood is loud all through the night. If anything, she’s worried for her mother, a woman who has always pursued her dream full-force only to come up empty handed, forced to waitress 15 hours a day. There hasn’t been anyone else, not really, since her father left. What time does her mom have for dating, anyways?

Maya doesn’t like to think about dating. She’s fourteen, so maybe she doesn’t need to concern herself with thoughts of boyfriends or girlfriends, but Riley and Lucas tried dating and it didn’t work, so what does that mean? If two people who seems so perfect for each other can’t even find happiness together, what chance does she–her mom, what chance does her mom have, when the odds are stacked against her like this?

She’s too young to worry about falling in love. But sometimes the thought keeps her up at night while the city buzzes below her apartment.

ii. 

It’s bad. Not all bad, but bad. Sometimes the energy required just to seem like herself at school is too much. And she doesn’t want to lean on Riley too heavily, doesn’t want to force her problems and anxieties to become Riley’s. Of course, when Riley was being bullied, Maya wished she had known earlier. But this was different. It wasn’t a stranger telling her she should be someone else – just the little voice in her head that seemed so sure that she was destined to become like her mother, constantly chasing her dream of becoming an artist with nothing to show for it in the end.

That’s why she follows Lucas onto the train one Wednesday afternoon. He promises his parents won’t mind if she visits for a while, even though it’s clear that he’s confused. He thinks she should be with Riley, and he may even be right, but Riley was especially chipper all day and she can’t be the one to steal that excited glimmer from her best friend’s eyes.

Lucas, though…he can handle it. He’s been through dark things, too, not that he ever talks about it. Maya learns most about his past from Zay, but even Zay has his limits. He wants to protect his best friend, a feeling Maya clearly understands. As they sit on the train together, Maya can’t help thinking how they’ve never done this before, not just the two of them like this. Somehow it makes her feel guilty, primarily because she didn’t tell Riley she was going to Lucas’s place. She wasn’t purposely keeping it a secret, so why did it feel so wrong?

iii.

It’s been three weeks since she first went to the Friars’ home after school and this is her sixth time coming over. Lucas’s parents are rarely there, in fact it’s only once that Maya trailed after Lucas after he unlocked his front door to see his mother sitting there in the living room with a book in her lap. 

Of course, it doesn’t feel as comfortable as the Matthews’s place, but it’s a good alternative. Usually Lucas tries to make her do homework while Maya does whatever she can to distract him. TV, board games, anything so that she doesn’t waste their time together doing homework. She can do homework alone later.

Today, her successful distraction attempt was baking. Chocolate chip cookies were so easy to make that all of the instructions necessary were provided on the package of organic chocolate chips his mother kept in the pantry.

Maya grabs the package and twists it in her hands, adjusting the wrapping until she can read it properly. “All right…it says to pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.” When Lucas didn’t move, she raises her eyebrows at him to indicate that this is where he comes in.

“Oh,” he says quickly before moving over to the oven and punching in the appropriate numbers. “Got it.”

“Now we have to stir everything together in a big bowl.”

Before Maya has to stare at him again, Lucas is already digging around in the cupboards for a big bowl.

They mix the ingredients together, with Maya throwing in all of the necessary flour and sugar and butter into the bowl while Lucas stirs. Once the cookies are in the oven, they collapse onto the couch, Maya’s head lolling over onto Lucas’s chest with her eyes closed.

“Baking is _exhausting_. We should have just bought some cookies from the store down the street.”

Lucas peers down at her, gingerly moving a damp piece of hair away from her face. Her hairline is drenched in sweat but she doesn’t have it in her to feel self-conscious around him. That’s what practically sticking your head in an oven did to a person.

“We should have done our homework,” he suggests instead.

Maya _pffts_ him and opens her eyes to look at at him. “You can do my homework if it would really make you happy, Huckleberry.”

“Such a generous offer,” he smiles, the expression exaggerated as if he’s actually considering it. “I’d hate to have that much fun without you, though.”

“Would you?” She asks, her tone vaguely more serious.

“Usually it’s more fun when you’re here,” he admits easily. “I don’t like having to stay up later because you wouldn’t let me do any work, but making cookies is more entertaining. Especially the way you do it.”

They both glance towards the kitchen where flour is still scattered all over the counters.

“Will your mom hate me for messing up the kitchen?”

“My mom could never hate you.” There’s a beat before he extricates himself from her and gets to his feet again. “We’re gonna clean it up before she even gets here.”

Maya groans and closes her eyes again. “Five more minutes.”

“C’mon, if we don’t do it now it’ll just get harder to even consider.”

“I’ve already stopped considering it,” she replies, grabbing a pillow from the end of the couch and pulling it closer to stick it under her head.

Lucas knows better than to try grabbing her by the arm to get her up, so instead he crouches so he’s speaking into her ear. “Maya, you made the mess, now you have to clean it.”

“Wouldn’t it be more chivalrous if you just did it yourself? Isn’t that your thing?”

He rolls his eyes but smiles, since her eyes are still closed and she can’t take it as a sign that she’s winning. “No. Get up. Don’t make me carry you there. I’ll put you _on_ the counter, then you’ll be covered in flour.”

She groans again, but still doesn’t get up. Her eyes flit open and she turns her head slightly to look him in the eyes. “I’m tired,” she complains. “And you wouldn’t.”

Lucas just shakes his head before wrapping an arm beneath her. “It didn’t have to come to this, Maya,” he says almost regretfully, although they both know that he’s struggling not to smile.

Before she can fight him off, he’s lifting her and carrying her towards the kitchen. By the time he has her almost on the counter, she’s thumping her palm against his chest. “Let me _down_ , Ranger Rick!”

“I plan to,” he grins, moving her closer to the flour covered surface.

“On the _floor_ , Hopalong.”

“But on the counter you can still sleep!”

“ _Lucas_ ,” she shrieks as she feels part of her back brush the counter’s surface.

He stops abruptly, his grin softening to something more akin to a fond smile. “Okay, okay,” he says softly, placing her instead so she stands on her own two feet on the kitchen floor.

Maya immediately smacks him in the arm, spinning around quickly to see what articles of clothing have been floured.

“Well? Where is it?” She demands.

“Um…” He starts, his eyes lower than Maya had been anticipating.

“Oh, _geez_ , never mind,” she huffs, turning to face him fully again. “Keep your eyes up here, Friar.”

They clean the counter while the cookies bake, Maya begrudgingly wielding a sponge while Lucas dries the clean surface with a dish towel. Maya ends up leaving just before 7pm with a tupperware container full of cookies to keep her company on the train home.

iv.

She’s not sure how, but it’s been four months. Maya still spends most of her time with Riley at the Matthews’s apartment, of course, but when she’s feeling especially out of it she opts to go home with Lucas. One Saturday, she wakes up to find her mother already gone, which isn’t unusual. What _is_ unusual is the flash of their landline alerting her to a message. She checks it assuming she can just tell her mom to listen to it herself if it’s important.

It’s not. Or, it is, but Maya doesn’t want it to be. Her father is wondering how they’re both doing and if he might get some recent photos of Maya. He doesn’t ever mention wanting to see her in person. All he needs to feel like he’s still her dad is a school photo. Her eyes are already filled with tears before the message ends and after the paralyzation of shock wears off she grabs a jacket and stomps down to the train.

Lucas answers the door, even though both of his parents are home. They’re still in their bedroom and Maya doesn’t bother explaining herself as she pushes past Lucas towards his room. They hardly ever spend time in there but Maya can’t imagine anything more mortifying than having his parents walk into the living room to find her crying.

He doesn’t ask immediately. He follows after her cautiously, closing the door behind him. Maya’s sitting on his bed and Lucas joins her after a moment’s pause. She knows that he’s never seen her like _this_ , usually she can at least pretend that she’s okay as long as he’s talking to her and keeping her distracted. But after not hearing her father’s voice in years, Maya can’t pretend to be fine. There’s nothing fine with that.

Lucas wraps an arm around her shoulders and she falls against him, crying into his chest but not sobbing, at least she’s not sobbing. She can’t even consider how this will impact their relationship, the fact that he’s not only seen her cry but been cried _on_ , been the one she chose to run to when she was at her lowest. 

Once she goes silent, Lucas finds his voice. “What happened?”

She sniffs, staring into the fabric of his t-shirt to avoid looking him in the face. “There’s a message, from my dad. On my home phone, I usually…I don’t usually check those messages. It was meant for my mom but–” A new thought crosses her mind and she almost cracks open right there in Lucas’s room. “What if she always deletes his messages without telling me about them?” She asks, mostly to herself, her voice barely above a whisper.

The idea of blaming her father entirely for his absence is still new after so many years of blaming her mother. She doesn’t want to slip back into that mindset, and she doesn’t have any proof that her mother has been withholding from her. But she can’t stop from wondering.

“Your mom loves you, Maya,” Lucas says finally, Maya almost forgetting that it’s him she was still leaning against. “If she _has_ kept messages from you, I think that’s what she decided was best for you. And seeing you like this…well, maybe she was right.”

She peers up at him now, not sure whether to feel angry or more upset or touched by his concern. 

“You’re tough, but you can’t fight everything. You can’t fight feeling like crying when you hear you dad’s voice. Your mom didn’t want to see you cry.” After a moment of silence in which all Maya can do is sniffle, he continues, “I’m guessing it wasn’t a good message.”

“No,” she says simply.

He wraps both arms around her now, properly hugging her to his chest. It’s not like this with Riley, she can’t help thinking even through her hurt. There are the obvious reasons: Lucas has strong arms, Lucas smells like all-natural soap and shampoo, Lucas rests his chin on her head and breathes into her hair. But she knows there’s something else, too. 

Maybe later she’ll allow herself to think about it, but right now, all she cares about is how him holding her makes that morning almost seem like nothing more than a bad dream.


End file.
